The House of Lincoln by Nancy Horan

Author:Nancy Horan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

NOVEMBER 1860

On November 6, Election Day, Mr. Lincoln spent the day in the office he’d borrowed from the governor over in the state house, surrounded by friends and supporters. Owen had hung about in the vicinity of Mr. Lincoln the whole day, following him over to the Sangamon County Courthouse, where he waded through a mass of people to cast his ballot, then back to the reception room in the governor’s suite. Around five o’clock, as early vote counts were coming in, he went home, as Ana knew, and dined with his family, then returned to the state house to read telegrams reporting returns.

“It was strange how calm he remained throughout the whole evening,” Owen told Ana the next day. “There was immense tension all day long. The chief operator over at the Illinois and Mississippi Telegraph office had made an offer to Mr. Lincoln that he might come over there to read returns. Well, by nine o’clock, he was sitting on a sofa near the telegraph machines. Good news kept coming in, and every hopeful telegram was followed by cheers in that office. And when a particularly good telegram came in, Lincoln would say, “Send it to the boys,” at which point somebody carried it over to the Hall of Representatives in the Capitol. A huge roar came from that direction, and when the news passed out to the people waiting in the square—there had to have been ten thousand of them out there—another thundering cheer echoed the one inside.”

Around midnight, after waves of good news from around the country, Owen followed the Lincoln insiders over to Watson’s saloon, where Mary Lincoln was waiting. She enjoyed with him the spread of cake and ice cream and coffee. When Lincoln went back to the telegraph office and got word that New York State had gone for him, it was settled. He defeated Douglas as well as John Breckinridge, the Democrat the South had put up. He had the White House.

“The popular vote for Lincoln was a little under forty percent,” Owen told her. They were eating an early dinner in the Lincolns’ kitchen the evening after the election. “When he knew for certain he’d won the electoral vote count, his face lit up and then it turned pretty sober as it sank in. Everyone in the room was yelling. People were jumping up and some were rolling on the floor.

“Outside, it was mayhem. People in the square just went insane—hollering, crying, cutting capers. They were singing ‘Ain’t I Glad I Joined the Republicans’ and calling over and over for Lincoln. Wanted to lift and pass him around overhead, no doubt. But he was in a hurry. He got up and said, ‘Well, gentlemen, there’s a little woman at our house who is probably more interested in this dispatch than I am.’ He took off then.”

Ana grinned to hear of the scene. “And when he got to the house, he came in the door and shouted, ‘Mary! Mary! We are elected!’”

“So I suppose he does love her.

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